Senate Democrats want a vote on an alternative stopgap funding bill as they look for leverage against Republicans with two days to go until a government shutdown.
The lawmakers emerged from a closed-door lunch on Wednesday and said that they would not help advance the House GOP-passed, seven-month funding measure unless Republicans would agree to give them amendment votes — including on a 30-day, alternative short-term funding bill.
Democrats do have some leeway to make demands, despite being in the minority: In order to meet the Friday night deadline to avoid a shutdown, Republicans will need an agreement from all 100 senators to speed up consideration of the House GOP funding bill, which would otherwise take days to get through the chamber.
Republicans also need at least eight Democrats to join them in overcoming procedural hurdles to be able to move to a final vote on the funding bill known as a continuing resolution, or CR. Republicans can ultimately pass the funding bill by a simple majority, meaning they would not need Democratic votes for the final step.
“Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR. Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR,” Schumer said during a Senate floor speech.
“We should vote on that,” Schumer said. “I hope — I hope — our Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday.”
Schumer made no mention during his floor speech of wanting an amendment vote on the short-term stopgap, but senators emerging from their Wednesday afternoon lunch meeting said that is the crux of their strategy. That could also give them a potential offramp to vote on the final House-passed proposal if Republicans agree to a vote on a short-term stopgap — even if that stopgap, as expected, fails.
“We want an opportunity to get an amendment vote or two, so that’s what we are insisting on to vote for cloture,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who confirmed the weekslong stopgap would be one of the amendments Democrats pushed for.
Republicans currently have one Democratic “yes” vote: Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, meaning seven more are necessary to get over the 60 vote hurdle. Several Democrats have refused to say how they will vote, leaving open a potential pathway to approving the Republican-endorsed deal to avert a shutdown if Democratic leadership can reach a larger deal on amendment votes.
But there’s also signs that opposition within the caucus is only continuing to grow.
Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) became the latest Democrat to say he will oppose the House plan on Wednesday.
“I cannot support this Continuing Resolution. Congressional Republicans’ CR will hurt Vermont families, veterans, businesses and farmers by making drastic cuts and blocking Congress’ ability to respond to Trump’s reckless tariffs,” Welch said.
“As a Democrat, I want the federal government to work — not to shut down. Republicans need to come back to the table and pass the clean one-month CR that allows budget negotiations to continue,” he added.
